# Putting subtitles on .mov file **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 19, 2012, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/putting-subtitles-on-mov-file/631922 "2012-08-19T01:57:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bam\_Boo\_Gut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8c91f0/32.png) [@Bam\_Boo\_Gut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bam_Boo_Gut)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2012, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/putting-subtitles-on-mov-file/631922/1 "2012-08-19T01:57:33Z")
I’ve just been asked to “transcribe” audio for subtitles on a .mov file. I’m not a techie but I’ve subtitled a few videos before in a studio. The dude had his software all set up, all I had to do was type in the text and drag things back and forth to allow it to show for however long, from whatever time. I suppose I was adding the text and editing it in place. That was years ago now. With this new request the guy is asking me to time stamp the text so he can tell where in the .mov it starts and send him the result in a word document. It seems a bit of a long winded way of going about it - what’s he going to do copy and paste it all, all over again? Is that how it’s done? Surely I can take the .mov file and with the right software drop the text right into it and he can re edit it from there, chopping and changing until he’s got it how he wants? So far he’s sent me an m4a file, I used [transcribe.wreally.com](http://transcribe.wreally.com) which was handy because you can slow it down and he was happy with the format I returned to him - I copied and pasted it into an email. Now he’s sent me an mp4 file and asks me if I can watch it and type at the same time? Asks me if I can prepare it in Word? Of course I can, but I can’t open it in the wreally thing. He says it’s too complicated/time consuming to pull the audio off the mov file? I’m not sure why he wants a word document although it’s easy enough to do. So Dopers - you’ve got a .mov file, you can’t type (and I can), it’s in a language you don’t understand (and I do) and you want it subtitled - how would you want me to do it? I feel like he’s going to make more work for himself when I could slap the whole thing together and he can edit it from there. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2012, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/putting-subtitles-on-mov-file/631922/2 "2012-08-19T07:42:40Z")
I took a graduate course in translation, including a course in Subtitling, and of the programs we used I liked [Subtitle Workshop](http://www.urusoft.net/products.php?cat=sw) best. It’s free, very straightforward and covers most movie formats. There are limitations on things like changing colors or formats, but those are a limitation of each movie format, not of the software. Anyway, by giving the information in a word or excel as “text + timestamp”, that’s easily uploaded. SW (and the other programs we used) can download/upload subtitles as txt files: that’s what your client wants. Format things the way he says (or if he hasn’t given specifics, just format them consistently) and it will probably be faster than installing and learning to use unfamiliar software. Oh, and video downloader/converter YTD can rip a mov’s sound into several sound formats. The free version does less files at a time than the paid version. ---
**Author:** ![Bam\_Boo\_Gut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8c91f0/32.png) [@Bam\_Boo\_Gut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bam_Boo_Gut)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2012, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/putting-subtitles-on-mov-file/631922/3 "2012-08-19T13:06:05Z")
Thank you so much **Nava**